A couple weeks ago, I went to The Peached Tortilla’s Doughnut Milkshake & Pastry Pop-Up, featuring Chef Janina O’Leary of Play Dough Pop Up, held at Peached Social House in Austin on North Lamar. The desserts were pure sweet, cold, creamy decadence… with the occasional Daniel Day-Lewis / There Will Be Blood joke mixed in.

I had the I Drink Your Milkshake: Chocolate ice cream, crushed pretzels, malted milk chocolate doughnut. Paired with a Nutella swirl coffee cake. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I love the mix of salty and sweet, so the addition of crushed pretzels stuck to the peanut butter-rimmed mason jar was fantastic.

My sister got the Birthday Cake Mimosa: matcha-pistachio baby cake with strawberry butter cream, frangelico, vodka, grenadine, brut. Paired with an everything cookie. Also paired with rainbow sprinkles and a birthday candle on fire. I thought of it as a very fancy mimosa + cake version of a Flaming Moe with its level of popularity (minus the Krusty Brand non-narcotic cough syrup, of course.) It was funny to see everyone trying to Instagram their treat before the candle melted into the champagne flute.

Kathy loves matcha and matcha-flavored desserts.

So many delectables being prepared behind the order counter.

Mmmmm… Nutella swirlcoffee cake Peached Social House even had two GIF photobooths set up from Bootheasy… confetti and super-sized food props included.

I spend approximately 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at my desk at the office… and probably more because I have a crazy job and deal with things like breaking news and late night football coverage at 1am. When you do the math, nearly a third of your life is spent at work. I think it’s safe to say your workplace is your second home.

National Clean Off Your Desk Day was back in January and I made an effort to beautify my desk at the office (aka second home). Adding things such as motivational art prints, silk flowers, glasses to hold pens, and these DIY gold bear bookends helped. The clean off and redecorating was needed not only to “make my desk prettier” but also to make my workspace less cluttered, as I was definitely in danger of an impending newspaper avalanche.

Before and after pictures of my desk. The headline for myself that I avoided:Woman Presumed Dead After Desk Newspaper AvalancheRescue dogs are searching through the night for signs of life. Authorities hope to find her under the piles of crumbled newsprint, 35mm film from the 80’s, police dashcam footage DVDs and empty Girl Scout cookie boxes.

These gold bear bookends add a nice fancy feeling to my desk. I’ve seen similar projects on Pinterest that include spray painting the brick/stone/base, but while at Home Depot I came across these 5 x 5 x 14 natural limestone edger bricks. This brick I found was actually cracked, but split diagonally in a perfect way for this project. With the white limestone, it sorta looks like a polar bear perched on an iceberg in the arctic! Scroll below to see full instructions on how to make these gold bear bookends.

Lay down some newspaper or flattened cardboard boxes outside and spray the figurines down with primer. I did two coats with an hour of dry time in between.

I like to stay on the safe side of making sure everything is completely dry, so I left the primed figurines outside overnight before getting to the gold. Spray the figurines down with gold spray paint. I did two coats with an hour of dry time in between. Let dry overnight.

Use a wet rag or towel to wipe off any limestone dust on the bricks. Place a few drops of glue on the paws of a bear figurine and attach to the top of a limestone brick. Do the same with your second bear figurine. Let dry overnight (…slow and steady wins the race.)

Cut out felt rectangles to fit the bottom of your bricks. Place a few drops of glue on the corners of the felt and place the bricks on top. Let dry.

In the end, this was about $21.50 to make, with the bear figurines being the largest cost. And I have plenty of extra spray paint, glue and felt scraps to use in future crafting projects.

Oh hello. I haven’t blogged in years. I’m at hellotinaphan.com now, searching for some sense of a fresh start. With a myriad of work/personal/overall life ups and downs, I’ve been in a rut and felt this site could be an outlet for some of the more creative ideas floating around inside my brain and crafty things I make. And also an outlet for the cute things I sometimes photograph.

I’ve been volunteering with Austin Pets Alive! as a photographer and videographer for about a year and a half now, capturing images of dogs and cats for their profile bios on the website.

Friday, Nov. 25 through Monday, Nov. 29, both Austin Pets Alive! and Austin Animal Center are shelters in the area offering free adoptions through Home For the Pawlidays. From Zappos’ site: “FREE PET ADOPTIONS! From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, Zappos will cover the adoption fee for the cat or dog of your choice when you adopt through Best Friends Animal Society or select locations in the No More Homeless Pets Network.”

Without further ado, here are some cats and dogs I’ve captured with my camera that are still at APA waiting for their fur-ever family:

Huggy is a two-year-old golden retriever mix. She is deaf, but that doesn’t stop her from being a lover. She’s a bit shy but after spending some time with you, she will warm up and brush up against you in search of precious head scratches!

Sadie is an eight-year-old terrier mix at Austin Pets Alive Tarrytown location. She is filled with kisses to share with all humans and loves going on walks.

Is that a ball in your hand? Well bouncy three-year-old King is ready to play play play!

Can you tell she loves a good belly rub every now and then? Lyric is a sweet one-year-old pit bull terrier mix who is currently in training for the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Certification, which means she’s learning a lot of commands and obedience.

Four-year-old retriever labrador mix Midas will never refuse an offer to play fetch. He practically comes with his own tennis ball!

Little adventurer La Croix is always excited to explore her surroundings, sniffing all the new scents of the environment and greeting new people. Here she is trotting along in search of a treat.

Eliza Jane is a playful one-year-old blue tabby available for adoption at Austin Pets Alive! She can happily keep watch perched on a windowsill or play play play with cat toys.

This is Furret, an inquisitive two-year-old guy who will curiously stare at you with his big green eyes until he gets a chin scratch. Myself and fellow staff of the Statesman/Austin360 wrote some tips on self-care and stress relief, due to the intense election season that just ended and the upcoming holidays. I wrote about volunteering with animals as a form of stress relief and Furret became the front page kitty! He’s at Austin Pets Alive! Tarrytown location now (bow tie not included).